Coco Puffs at 1 AM
by WritingDistractions
Summary: "Ellie? What are you doing?" She looked around and analyzed her current position; sitting on the kitchen floor in her pajamas at one in the morning, eating cereal wistfully. How was she supposed to explain that? "...Nothing." / The Swap fanfiction, Jack x Ellie platonic fluff


**Wrote this a while back and forgot to post it. This is just all fluff, like there's no point. It's just some cute Jack x Ellie friendship stuff. Enjoy!**

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Ellie wasn't sure when she started doing it. It probably happened around her first years of college. She rarely slept a full ten hours in a row now. Her body just always woke up before the sunrise and it would take her ages to fall back to sleep again. Ellie couldn't even explain it to herself. So, instead of lying in her bed pointlessly, the blonde girl usually went to get a midnight snack or doing something to tire herself out.

Now, Ellie probably should have considered her late night excursions when she agreed to move in with her best friend Jack after college. Jack was a very light sleeper, due to years of his brothers' antics and she only realized there might be a problem about a week after they were fully moved into their new apartment. Fortunately, Ellie had been going three months strong without waking him.

One night, at twelve fifty-two she awoke to her usual growling stomach. Sighing, Ellie slipped herself out of bed, shoved her feet into her slippers, and creaked her bedroom door open. She listened carefully to hear Jack's faint snoring from the room down the hall. There it was, the same even breathing every night. She was in the clear.

Creeping as quietly as she could out of her room, she made her way to their tiny kitchen safely and undetected. Sighing in relief, Ellie began rummaging through the cabinets for a bowl. She found one and placed it down on the counter before turning to the fridge and grabbing the milk too. Lastly, she brought out the box of cereal and poured both that and the milk into the bowl. She sat herself on the ground in the center of the kitchen and placed the two objects in her hands onto the floor. She stretched her body and reached for the bowl and rested that on the floor too. Ellie would realized later that she caused quite a ruckus while getting the bowl and pouring the cereal, but for the time being she was too tired to notice.

As often as this happened, Ellie was still exhausted by it every time. She missed being able to sleep a full night through. Sometimes she woke up hungry, other times angry, sad, excited, it really depended on the night. Tonight, Ellie just felt tired.

Ellie situated herself and crossed her legs, but the girl soon realized she forgot a spoon. She groaned in frustration.

"Of course. Forgot the damn spoon, and I was already sitting down-," Ellie muttered angrily, her words incoherent to all but herself. She dropped her bowl (as hard as she could without breaking it or spilling milk) onto the wood floor and shoved herself up to stand. She opened a drawer roughly, grabbed a spoon, and then slammed it shut. She dropped herself to the ground again and violently shoved a spoonful of cereal into her mouth.

The girl continued to eat the cereal with a scowl, but after a while her small bout of anger turned to sadness. Ellie just felt lonely now. She stared sadly at her cereal and ate it slowly, scooping a bit every now and then.

"Ellie? What are you doing?"

Her head shot up and she saw Jack, in a tee shirt and flannel pants with bed head, staring at her sleepily confused and in shock. She looked around and analyzed her current position; sitting on the kitchen floor in her pajamas at one in the morning, eating cereal wistfully. How was she supposed to explain that?

"...Nothing."

Jack, now more awake, looked around the kitchen,

"You're eating Cocoa Puffs on the floor at one A.M.," he concluded. Ellie sighed tiredly.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you," she admitted.

Jack shrugged in reply and walked around her, opening a cabinet behind her and reaching into it. He reappeared before her with a bowl in one hand and a spoon in another. He plopped himself on the ground before Ellie and adjusted himself. Jack smirked at her.

"Pass the Cocoa Puffs."

Ellie couldn't help but smile at her best friend. She slid the box across the floor along with the milk. Jack poured them both in his bowl and then spooned the cereal into his mouth. He chewed contentedly,

"So _,_ this is nice."

"You're ridiculous," Ellie said shaking her head and eating some of her own Puffs. "You should be mad at me. Don't you have to get up early tomorrow?"

"I have to get up early everyday," Jack dismissed, waving his hand.

He set his bowl down and studied Ellie, who was slurping a spoonfull. She felt his eyes on her and glanced up from the bowl she held close to her mouth,

"Wha?" she asked with her mouth full.

"How often do you get up in the middle of the night?" He asked.

Ellie swallowed and tried to casually reply, "I just couldn't sleep tonight, so I thought I'd grab myself a snack."

Jack gave her a look, "Ellie, we've been friends since sophomore year of high school. Don't think I don't know you by now. I already know you get up in the middle of the night all the time; we live together for God's sake. I just want to know how often you do it."

"Uh, like every night," she said nonchalantly.

"Every night?" he said in disbelief. "For how long?"

Ellie shrugged, "I don't know. College, I guess."

"Jeez. So, what? Do you just eat Cocoa Puffs excessively when you can't sleep? Is this why we are always running out of cereal?" Jack joked.

The girl rolled her eyes. "No, I usually stay up for an hour or so and try to get tired again. And we are always running out of cereal because you're constantly eating it!"

Jack grinned sheepishly, and then picked up his bowl and continued eating. Comfortable silence surrounded them and Ellie found that it was really nice. She felt like she and Jack hadn't spent any quality time together in a long time.

"You're right. This is nice," she told the boy sitting before her.

Jack looked around them at the situation they were in and laughed.

"Are we weird friends?" he asked.

Ellie laughed too. "You do realize the only reason we became friends was because we switched bodies for three days, right? We passed weird a _long_ time ago."

"Fair enough," Jack shrugged, finished his cereal and stood, grabbing Ellie's finished bowl as well. He placed them both in the sink and picked up the milk and Cocoa Puffs box, returning them to their correct homes.

Ellie leaned backwards, laid herself on the floor, and stretched her limbs out. Jack shut the fridge and noticed his friend sprawled out on the hardwood. He gave her a look like, "are you serious?" Ellie laughed at him as he stepped over her carefully and stood where her feet lay.

"Get up."

"Why?" Ellie complained.

"Because, you need to sleep," Jack explained. "It's not good not to get a full night's rest and you've got like, four years to catch up on."

Ellie threw her arms in the air, signalling Jack to pull her up. He sighed, grabbed her hands, and yanked her to her feet. Once standing upright, Ellie said,

"You do know that I'm just gonna get up tomorrow night and do this exact same thing over again, right?"

Jack shut off the kitchen light and the two walked down the hall back to their rooms.

"No you will not. You need to sleep," he said both endearing and stern. They paused where they hall split and led to their opposite bedrooms. "I'll lock your door or tie you to your bed or something."

"Ooh, kinky," Ellie teased.

"Ew! Gross!" Jack said, genuinely disgusted. He shoved her away by her shoulder and Ellie just laughed.

"Goodnight, Jack," she said over her shoulder, walking to her room.

"You better not wake up tomorrow," he called after her.

"Goodnight, Jack," she repeated as she opened her door.

"I mean it!"

" _Goodnight_ , Jack," Ellie said for the third time. With her hands on the doorknob and door frame, she turned to give the boy standing in the middle of the hall a warning look.

"Night, Ellie," Jack replied softly, turning and entering his own room.

She nodded and closed her door.

"And stop eating all the Cocoa Puffs! Save them for the rest of us! And by us, I mean me!" Her idiot best friend called one last time through her door.

"Go to bed!" she shouted, opening her door and poking her head out for a second to so he could hear her and then slamming it again.

Ellie shook her head fondly. She would at least try to sleep a full night tomorrow. If she didn't, at least she knew she had someone to eat Cocoa Puffs with at one in the morning.

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